How the coconut water industry is built on monkey-abuse

Abused monkeys could be picking the fruit used to make the coconut water you drink to stay healthy.

Across south-east Asia, baby monkeys are taken away from their mothers, chained up and trained to pick as many as 1000 coconuts a day in special schools. Their mothers are often shot by hunters.

Many of the coconut-based health products which are sold in health food stores and supermarkets everywhere, are made from coconuts sourced in Thailand, where the majority of the coconuts are picked by the abused monkeys.

The monkeys are chained up and forced to pick as many as 1000 coconuts a dayAccording to animal rights groups the menial tasks is psychologically damaging for the monkeys

The MailOnline has investigated several major brands and they have revealed that they source their products from Thailand, as well as Indonesia and the Philippines.

Celebrities and food bloggers have praised the health benefits of coconut water and oils and use them as a nutritional alternative in many of their free-from bakes, making it nearly impossible to find a supermarket that doesn’t sell some form of coconut water or oil.

As demand grows, it has turned into a billion pound industry, claims MailOnline, which is fuelling the growing abuse of macaque monkeys. MailOnline reports that the monkeys suffer ‘serious psychological damage’ as a result of being chained up 24 hours a day.

The monkeys are taken as babies and their mothers are often killed by huntersMonkeys are chained up 24 hours a day

Many of the companies who produce coconut water, source their product from south-east Asian countries. In Indonesia, 18m tonnes of coconuts are harvested each year and in Thailand, they produce just over 1m tonnes a year.

The MailOnline reports that it is unknown how many of those coconuts used for making coconut water and oils are picked by monkeys.

However, the Bangkok Post claims that the coconuts are ‘most likely’ picked by monkeys if the coconuts came from Thailand.

The abused monkeys reportedly work from 8am to 5pm

The abused monkeys reportedly work from 8am to 5pm and are only allowed a short break when it rains and on Sundays.

But even when they’re not working, the monkeys are given little freedom. The owners muzzle them and they are shackled to a shed or tree stump, with their movement restricted and interaction limited.

While a human can pick a few hundred coconuts at most, a well-trained monkey can pick hundreds more. This makes them a prized commodity – they can be worth up to £1,200 when sold to another farmer.

The prized monkeys can be worth up to £1,200 when sold to another farmer

Footage from Koh Phangan in Thailand, one of the special schools where the monkeys are trained, shows a monkey picking a coconut in less than 20 seconds. The monkey scales the tree, removes the coconut and throws it back down expertly.

Once the tree is empty, the monkey-handler pulls at the chain around the monkey’s neck to tell it to climb down.

On top of that, the monkeys are paraded around in front of tourists, while the owners claim that they enjoy the process of picking the fruit.

However, Claire Turnbull of the Wild Futures monkey sanctuary told MailOnline that forcing the socially-intelligent monkeys to be chained up and to do these most basic tasks causes ‘lasting psychological damage.’

the monkeys are paraded around in front of tourists

‘By keeping them socially isolated, on chains or in small cages, monkeys can develop a host of abnormal behaviours which range from “extreme submission” to self-harming behaviour,’ she said.

‘As they mature, primates naturally become aggressive. In order to keep them submissive, primates are typically subjected to abusive training methods which make them anxious and fearful.’

‘We absolutely urge companies to make sure they source fruit from farms that do not exploit monkeys in this way.’

The schools claim that their training emphasises showing kindness to the monkeys and not punishing them for their mistakes.

‘primates are typically subjected to abusive training methods which make them anxious and fearful.’

Through their training, the macaques are taught how to know when the fruit is ripe, how to untangle themselves from ropes and some are also taught how to pick coconuts up from the ground and put them into sacks – saving the humans from doing the back-breaking labour.

The Bangkok Post reports that one of the training centres has claimed that using the pig-tailed macaques is safer than using humans because they are ‘strong, enjoy climbing, do not complain, do not call for higher wages… and are not corrupt.’

‘They do not require social security and accident insurance. Monkeys are therefore considered a “living machine” that is very valuable for coconut farmers,’ the Bangkok Post adds.

Thai locals argue that monkeys have been helping their ‘human friends’ harvest coconuts for hundreds of years.